Samuel Beckett, Echo's Bones and Other Precipitates

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Echo’s Bones and Other Precipitates, Beckett’s first collection of poetry, was published by Europa Press in Paris in 1935. The title alludes to Book III of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in which are described the two degenerative transformations of the nymph Echo (359-510). In the first, Juno curtails Echo’s vocal agency so that she is unable either to initiate speech or to remain silent. In the second, as a result of her obsession with, and rejection by, Narcissus, her body wastes so that “only her voice and bones were left, till finally her voice alone remained; for her bones, they say, were turned to stone” (399; Innes trans. 84). Consequently, the “Other” in the title of Beckett’s collection places emphasis …

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Citation: Madden, Leonard. "Echo's Bones and Other Precipitates". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 July 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34651, accessed 07 October 2024.]

34651 Echo's Bones and Other Precipitates 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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